Media Release

Freedom of information law to become tool of censorship

Freedom of information laws will become a tool of censorship
if proposed amendments are passed by Parliament.

The Federal Government has tabled amendments to the Freedom
of Information Act ("FOI Act") to exempt information about
operation of the government's Internet censorship regime.

Online civil liberties group, Electronic Frontiers Australia
("EFA"), said the amendments are designed to prevent public
scrutiny of the operation and effectiveness of the Internet
censorship regime.

Entire documents would become exempt from disclosure by the
Australian Broadcasting Authority ("ABA") and the Office of
Film and Literature Classification ("OFLC").

Under current FOI law, the ABA blacks out the names and URLs
of web pages that have been 'taken down' from Australian web
sites by order of the ABA before releasing a document.
Under proposed amendments, documents containing identifying
information that is currently blacked out would become exempt
in their entirety.

"Information that has previously been released to EFA under
FOI will become exempt," said Irene Graham, EFA Executive
Director. "Some information we've obtained raises questions
about the accuracy of government reports on operation of the
regime. There is no reason for the broad exemptions proposed
other than to prevent public scrutiny."

"The exemptions are extraordinary. The ABA and OFLC could write
the name of a 'prohibited' web page on any document they don't
want to release and the entire document would then be exempt."

"The proposal is an admission by the Government that its
Internet censorship laws have failed to achieve their
objective. If material the government claims has been
'taken down' was not still accessible, there would be no
reason to use FOI law as a tool of censorship."

EFA said the proposed changes to the FOI Act should be rejected.

"The government should not be permitted to use the failure of
the Internet censorship laws as an excuse for making a wide range
of documents exempt from disclosure under FOI."

-- ENDS --

Below is:
- Background information
- Contact details for media

Background:

Proposed amendments to the FOI Act are contained in the
"Communications Legislation Amendment Bill 2002", introduced
into the House of Representatives on 27 June 2002.

In June 2002, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ("AAT")
handed down its decisions in the FOI case, Electronic Frontiers
Australia Incorporated and Australian Broadcasting Authority
(Q2000/979). The AAT ruled that the documents requested by EFA
were exempt from disclosure "in so far as they reveal URLs and IPs".

The government's proposed amendments to FOI law exempt far more
information than was ruled exempt by the AAT.

The AAT decision in the FOI case 'EFA and ABA', Q2000/979
http://www.efa.org.au/FOI/clabill2002/index.html#aatdec